Bob Schaffer on Tax Reform

Senate challenger 2008; previously Republican Representative (CO-4)

Cutting taxes increased revenue & unleashed economic growth

Q: It has been your party, in all fairness, that has been in charge for the most part of the last eight years, and it has run up record deficits of now $500 billion.

SCHAFFER: You're correct that under Republican leadership, deficits grew, and I think
it has mainly been a function of war. However, I was in Congress for six years. I got elected 1996; I left in 2002. During those years, we did balance the budget. We did it by trimming the rate of growth in spending, but more than anything else, the tax
cuts that we helped pushed forward, which applied to middle class households. Mark Udall likes to talk about it as tax cuts for the rich--but we actually grew the economy faster than had been projected--we actually increased the amount of revenue coming
to the federal government while we were slowing down the rate of growth in spending and reforming on the regulatory side. Welfare reform, for example, & other reforms, helped unleash the productivity of the economy. We need to do that again.

Voted YES on Tax cut package of $958 B over 10 years.

Vote to pass a bill that would cut all income tax rates and make other tax cuts of $958.2 billion over 10 years. The bill would convert the five existing tax rate brackets, which range from 15 to 39.6 percent, to a system of four brackets with rates of 10 to 33 percent.

Voted YES on eliminating the "marriage penalty".

Vote on a bill that would reduce taxes for married couple by approximately $195 billion over 10 years by removing provisions that make taxes for married couples higher than those for two single people. The bill is identical to HR 6 that was passed by the House in February, 2000.

Phaseout the death tax.

Schaffer co-sponsored the Death Tax Elimination Act:

Title: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to phaseout the estate and gift taxes over a 10-year period.

Summary: Repeals, effective January 1, 2011, current provisions relating to the basis of property acquired from a decedent. Provides with respect to property acquired from a decedent dying on January 1, 2011, or later that:

property shall be treated as transferred by gift; and

the basis of the person acquiring the property shall be the lesser of the adjusted basis of the decedent or the fair market value of the property at the date of the decedent's death.

Requires specified information to be reported concerning non-cash assets over $1.3 million transferred at death and certain gifts exceeding $25,000.

Makes the exclusion of gain on the sale of a principal residence available to heirs.

Revises current provisions concerning the transfer of farm real to provide that gain on such
exchange shall be recognized to the estate only to the extent that the fair market value of such property exceeds such value on the date of death.

Provides a similar rule for certain trusts.

Amends the special rules for allocation of the generation-skipping tax (GST) exemption to provide that if any individual makes an indirect skip during such individual's lifetime, any unused portion of such individual's GST exemption shall be allocated to the property transferred to the extent necessary to make the inclusion ratio for such property zero; and

if the amount of the indirect skip exceeds such unused portion, the entire unused portion shall be allocated to the property transferred.

Provides that, if an allocation of the GST exemption to any transfers of property is deemed to have been made at the close of an estate tax inclusion period, the value of the property shall be its value at such time.